Brian Daboll willing to embrace the unorthodox

I am a fan of unorthodox football.

I loved the 46 defense when it first reared its angry head. I applauded the Wildcat package. I was applauding passing the ball 70 percent of the time when Bill Parcells was winning titles running 65 percent of the time. Oh yeah, I also love the shovel pass, the quarterback draw, the safety and corner blitz and God bless Dick LeBeau and his Fire Zone.

So have we established that I like the unusual approach?

That is one reason I like Brian Daboll. The man isn't afraid to try different stuff.

This year, you've seen the Dolphins line up their entire offensive line on the right side of the center and try to out-flank the defense with a run to the strong side. You've seen Flea-flicker Wildcat plays on the first series of the game.

On Sunday you saw left tackle Jake Long split out wide as an eligible receiver who was really one very, very big blocking flanker for a receiver screen. No, the play didn't work because the timing was terrible. But when the Dolphins lined up, I just about fell off my chair with glee.

It was different. What can I say?

That willingness to embrace something different isn't the only reason I like Daboll. Let's face it, he was ripped for how terrible the Browns were scoring points last year. Dolphins fans were screaming at Tony Sparano for trying to improve his offense by hiring the guy who ran one of only two offenses in the NFL that scored fewer points than Miami last year.

Yes, Cleveland was 31st in the NFL in scoring. The Dolphins were 30th. But despite that seemingly fair point, Daboll has injected some life into the Miami offense this year.

With Daboll guiding him, Matt Moore has shown steady improvement. And the Miami offense that was 30th in scoring (just ahead of Cleveland) is tied for 22nd this year while the Browns are 28th.

Back in Cleveland, meanwhile, quarterback Colt McCoy has seemingly regressed this year after playing surprisingly well under Daboll last year.

So props to Daboll for everything but this: As he explains in the video below, he ran the tackle eligible screen last year also. Except it apparently worked there. (Turn up the volume, the sound is admittedly poor.)